Byproducts of the Flesh Trade

Blog - Joyful
Curmudgeon - Blog

Byproducts of the Flesh Trade – 12 August 2008

“Fifty-two billion pounds of inedible byproduct (bones, fats,
unusable hides, and cartilage) from America’s meat and poultry
slaughterhouses is each year transmogrified by “renderers” into
saleable adhesives, lubricants, chemicals, cosmetics, and processed
food ingredients – a grisly but profitable side business of the flesh
trade. This amount, however, does not include the 6 billion pounds of
dead stock that accumulate on U.S. feedlots. It must also be dealt
with. …only half of it is rendered…. If buried, dead stock…leaches
nitrogen and methane into the environment, and poisons the
groundwater. If burned – usually the case when mortalities are
catastrophic due to weather events or disease outbreaks – pyres will
poison the air with dioxin. If composted, the process is often poorly
managed, failing to adequately promote full decomposition….”
– From “101 Reasons Why I’m a Vegetarian” by Pamela Rice
www.vivavegie.org/itoc

Besides the obvious reasons of compassion, do you see why we try to
avoid using products made with animal-derived ingredients? And with the
world-wide dramatic increase in meat and dairy consumption, I think that
humans are in a very precarious position as far as the possibility of a
pandemic taking place. One would think that people (even if they don’t
care about the horrific suffering of other animals) would at least care
enough about their own and their loved ones’ health and well-being to
insist on an end to this carnivorous insanity.

Going vegan is the only sane, logical way to avoid all the dangers
that are part and parcel of this out-of-control corruption.

"Joyful Curmudgeon"
An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful. At the
same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the
world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true
peace and compassion.